Arrabales Using the Planes De Almas
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philippine studies Ateneo de Manila University • Loyola Heights, Quezon City • 1108 Philippines Counting People: Nineteenth-Century Population History of Four Manila Arrabales Using the Planes de Almas Francis A. Gealogo Philippine Studies vol. 59 no. 3 (2011): 399–423 Copyright © Ateneo de Manila University Philippine Studies is published by the Ateneo de Manila University. Contents may not be copied or sent via email or other means to multiple sites and posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s written permission. Users may download and print articles for individual, noncom- mercial use only. However, unless prior permission has been obtained, you may not download an entire issue of a journal, or download multiple copies of articles. Please contact the publisher for any further use of this work at [email protected]. http://www.philippinestudies.net Research Note FRANCIS A. GEALOGO Counting People Nineteenth-Century Population History of Four Manila Arrabales Using the Planes de Almas Along with profound social and political transformation, the arrabales (suburbs) of Intramuros, Manila, also underwent significant demographic changes during the nineteenth century as indicated by population growth, urbanization, rising population density, and changes in death, birth, and marriage rates. This paper utilizes quantitative data from the Planes de Almas, the numerical summaries of population data of different parishes found in the Archdiocesan Archives of Manila, to analyze the population history of these suburbs. These data concern burials, baptisms, and marriages, as well as reports on taxation and the confessional status of inhabitants. Keywords: demographic history • urban population history • spanish colonialism PHILIPPINE STUDIES 59, NO. 3 (2011) 399–423 © Ateneo de Manila University ince the publication of the landmark works of Wrigley (1966, difference involved a matter of days only (Gealogo 1995; Ng 1979). In most 1969), Henry (1968), and Hollingsworth (1968, 1969), studies established parishes, most children were baptized less than a week after their on demographic history have made major strides. In the birth, and internments were held within a week of the individual’s death. Philippines, Smith (1971, 1975, 1978), Doeppers and Xenos In other parishes, however, these patterns did not necessarily apply. These (1998), Owen (1987c), Cullinane (1998), Corpuz (1989, 1997), parishes included those with a significant number of non-Christian migrants Sand many others have pioneered and expanded the horizon of demographic (especially Chinese) who were being converted to Catholicism; peripheral, history by bringing to the fore the application of demographic techniques newly established colonial settlements where a number of infieles (non- to a number of Philippine archival materials. In the field of urban history, Christian “infidels”) were being converted to Christianity; or areas where a particularly the colonial history of urban Manila, Camagay (1982, 1992), number of unrecorded, undocumented inhabitants who were not integrated Reed (1978), Doeppers, (1972, 1974, 1984, 1998a, 1998b, 1998c), and within the organized municipalities had escaped the state’s enumeration and Medina (1994) have applied various techniques of historical analysis, with recording and therefore not incorporated in the parish registers. Those that remarkable emphasis on population history and demographic history. eluded the registers were labeled as remontados (literally, those who had gone These studies have proved instrumental in rediscovering new sources to the mountains), cimmarones (“wild”), malhechores (“evildoers”), infieles found in the rich collections of Philippine parish archives and the many (infidels), salvajes (“savages”), or simply indocumentados (undocumented/ repositories of historical documents found in different collections in the unregistered) (cf. Gealogo 1994). country. The essays by Cullinane (1998) and Doeppers (1998c), for instance, Aside from the various Libros found in parish archives, a systematic have highlighted the rich potential of the field as remarkably comparable tabulation of the vital events recorded in these books, along with other to studies based on sources found in other countries (Wrigley 1966; Xenos information about the parishes, were normally transmitted annually to the 1989; Willigan and Lynch 1982; Henry 1968; Hollingsworth 1968, 1969). religious superiors of the parish priests. During the nineteenth century, it was Studies using Philippine materials readily available in the archives have observed that there were significant improvements in recordkeeping by the been utilized to explain a number of historical issues relevant to population parishes occurring simultaneously with the state’s realization of the need to conditions of the past, particularly those related to fertility (Smith 1975), utilize these parish records to implement bureaucratic reforms and systematize mortality (Smith 1978; Owen 1987a, 1987b), family formation (Ng 1979), state functions connected with recordkeeping (Cullinane 1998, 300). These household composition and family composition (Gealogo 1995; Ng 1979), led to the increasing reliability of the tabulations coming from the parishes. and migration (Doeppers 1998a). Called Planes de almas (literally, plan or map of souls), these reports included information on the total population of the parish for the year; Parish Records as Data Sources the total number of baptismal, burial, and marriage ceremonies performed Various other sources can also be used in the study of Philippine demographic and recorded; and, in several instances, additional information such as the history. The parishes usually maintained Libros de bautismos (parish number of tribute payments collected; the number of exempted classes due baptismal registers), Libros de entierros/difuntos (parish registers of burial to illness, age, and elite status; the number of Indios, Spaniards, Chinese, and blessings), and Libros de matrimonios (parish marriage registers) to record mestizos de sangley (Chinese mestizos) in the population; and the number of Catholic events of baptisms, internments, and marriages—information children from birth to age 6 (parvulos), and single men and single women that can be translated easily into events indicating fertility, mortality, and at age of confession (solteros/solteras de solo confesion—a boy or girl who has nuptiality, respectively. While these categories do not present perfect made his or her first confession but has not yet taken communion, generally synchronicity of occurrence (i.e., a baptismal ceremony could occur at a between the ages of 7 and 11) and age of communion (solteros/solteras de date different from the date of birth, and the date of internment could be communion—generally a man between 12 and 18 and a woman between 12 different from the date of death), studies show that in most of the cases the and 20 years of age) (Doeppers and Xenos 1998, 381, 382). 400 PHILIPPINE STUDIES 59, NO. 3 (2011) GEALOGO / 19TH CENTURY POpulatiON HISTORY OF manila 401 These Planes de almas were sometimes compiled and published in data collected during the previous year, with the Estados, Guias, and other statistical books, generally called Estados generales (general list or account), published materials generally providing data collected two to four years Estado general de almas (general accounting of souls), or Estados de almas previously. For example, the events reported in the Planes de almas of 1848 (accounting of souls), some published by the religious orders while others were published and indicated in the printed sources as having occurred in 1851 by the colonial government. The data in the Estados were usually based on or 1852. Therefore, crosschecking and verifying entries in these sources can be the Planes, reporting data that were compiled a year or two after the release extremely labor intensive and difficult. Moreover, because the tabulated data of the Planes. from most other sources were culled primarily from the Planes de almas, it is Examples of these aggregated annual summaries were the following: but logical to give more weight and credibility to data sets generated directly Estado de la poblacion de las yslas Filipinas correspondiente el año de from these sources in the Planes compared with other possible sources such 1817/1818 (1819/1820); Estado general y estadistica de los Ministerios y as the Guias or the Estados generales. For this study the verified entries from Misiones (1831); Estado de las Islas Filipinas en 1842 (1843); Estadistica de the Planes were utilized, with data from the Guias and the Estados given la Provincia de S. Nicolas de Tolentino de PP Agustinos Recoletos de Filipinas consideration for crosschecking and verification. However, this process did (1851); Estado general de los pueblos del Arzobispado de Manila, y de los not automatically make the tabulations error-free, as odd entries still became obispados de sufraganeos de Nueva Caceres, Nueva Segovia, Cebu y Jaro evident in the final tabulations. After the data had been tabulated and the (1886); Estado general de los religiosos de la provincial del santisimo nombre demographic rates computed, it was possible to explain the unusual entries, de Jesus de Agustinos calzados (1888); and Estado general de los religiosos particularly with the help of other sources of information. existentes en los conventos, colegios, las parroquias y misiones de la provincia de Agustinos del santisimo nombre